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Liberals fear grand bargain betrayal if President Obama wins

The left plans to press Obama to protect those who reelected him. | AP Photo

But Obama signaled last week that he could revive the offer he made to Boehner, which was a mix of new revenues, reduced federal spending and entitlement benefit cuts such as raising the Medicare eligibility age and lowering the cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients.

“It will probably be messy. It won’t be pleasant,” Obama told The Des Moines Register editorial board. “But I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time, which is $2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in [taxes], and work to reduce the costs of our health care programs.”

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Administration officials say the range of options that Obama has considered in the past are well known, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if they are resurrected.

But progressive leaders don’t want Obama to go back there. Privately, they use words like “debacle” and “betrayal” to describe the backlash that would ensue. They are far more measured in their public statements ahead of the election.

The unions and advocacy groups have invested time and money in the battleground states pushing the message that Obama is better than Republican Mitt Romney on creating jobs, protecting the middle class and preserving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

And if Obama wins, they say they plan to remind him who is responsible for delivering him a second term — and it won’t be a coalition of Republicans, deficit hawks or even independents, but rather a Democratic base that expects him to stand firm on key priorities.

They won’t match the $30 million behind the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a group of CEOs that’s urging Congress to strike a grand bargain. But the coalition of unions and liberal advocacy groups, which is still finalizing its plans, vows to activate its network of grass-roots supporters.

“MoveOn’s 7 million members have made clear that ending the Bush tax cuts for folks earning over $250,000 and preventing any benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are top priorities — that’s a key reason why MoveOn members are working so hard to reelect President Obama and elect progressive champions to Congress,” said Ilya Sheyman, campaign director for MoveOn.org Political Action. “After Election Day, our members will expect Congress and the president to focus on passing a real jobs program, instead of making job-killing cuts, even if it requires working into January or beyond.”

The AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will keep their organizers in the field well after Tuesday to pressure lawmakers as their attention turns from electoral politics to deficit deal making.

The network will hold what they’re calling a national day of action Nov. 8 and follow up later in the month with lobbying events. They’ll also release results of an election night survey by Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg on why voters went to the polls.

“It is safe to say many groups are very concerned that a grand bargain will be foisted on the Congress that goes against what Democratic candidates promised on the campaign trail,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. “And it is clear the president is considering making the grand bargain that he offered to Boehner previously.”

What a bunch of horsesh---! It seems obvious that you just want to throw cold water on the momentum that the President has gained this week. When President Obama gets his second term he has nothing to lose and, we who voted for him, know we voted for an honorable man not a bowl of jello. That must make you want to tear your hair out.

These groups have had four years to figure it out and still they don't get it. They have been scammed,shammed,used,abused,exploited and pandered to by the master of deception. Obama has used the Blacks,the Latinos ,the Unions,LGBTs,Women,the Greens,and everybody else he can think of to support him and enable him to attempt to impose his radical agenda and marxist ideology on America. He has promised everything to every group and has delivered nothing. No card check,no amnesty,no gay marriage no cap and trade,no anything but more promises that it will happen if he is given another term.If indeed he gets another term he will have to answer to nobody,because he will have no fear of not being reelected unless,of course,he manages to change the law on term limits and becomes essentially dictator for life with the help of twelve million illegal aliens and millions more hooked on entitlements as guaranteed votes. If he manages to get one or two more liberal justices on SCOTUS and a few more liberal federal judges ,the Constitution and Congress will be irrelevant,because they will llegislate from the bench,at his direction.Barack Hussein Obama owes allegiance only to his handlers and his ideology,and uses,and will continue to use anybody and everybody he can to achieve his Marxist,Socialist,destructive and divicive goals.He will not stop until he is either removed from power or he succeeds in turning this once great and powerful nation into the kind of places our parents and grandparents came here to escape from. Four more years ( or less ) of Obama and America will take its rightful place among Greece,Venezuela,Cuba,N.Korea,and Spain to name a few.Two hundred thirty six - plus years of soverienty and progress will be wiped out by four-plus years of radical ideology ,a compliant media,and an easily pandered to,manipulated,complacent electorate.Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it .America would be wise to study the Russian Revolution of 1917 and it's results because we on exactly the same path.

Barack Obama's academic career has been put under wraps. His activities in college have been put under wraps. How he paid for college has been put under wraps. The birth certificate Obama finally presented had to be dragged out of him. When he was writing books he claimed he was born in Kenya. Now he claims he was born in the United States. Was he lying then, or is he lying now?

All information about his communist mentor has been covered up. The doctrines of the Black Liberation Church he attended for twenty years have been put under wraps. His associations with Acorn and the socialist party have been covered up. He even has a year when he was supposedly attending Columbia that no one can seem to account for. And the partisan press has shown no inclination to look into any of this. Who IS this guy? And WHAT is he hiding?

Eventually, a president is going to have to make some tough choices that are going to make a lot of people mad. The best chance we have to see that happen in the next four years is to re-elect the president. If Gov. Romney wins, he will have to concern himself with re-election. President Obama would not be so encumbered.

Leftists should not be nervous. With few exceptions, President Obama takes the line of least resistance, and does the wrong thing on the economy, whatever the area. If he is reelected, he will continue to bankrupt the federal government and paralyze the private sector with government regulations as during his first term. This is what the left wants. Mr. Obama is one of them, and always has been.

Explain to me how Romney won't do exactly the same thing. Considering that Romney is advocating an increase in military spending to 4% of the GDP, AND a 20% tax cut across the board, how exactly is Romney going to avoid contributing to the bankruptcy of the federal government?

You can say 'close loopholes' all you like, but there's clearly a lot more Romney isn't telling us this point about his economic policy than Obama. At least Obama isn't proposing new legislation which on face value directly add to the deficit.

You trust Romney, that's fine, but I have not been so convinced. I see little he has offered which makes me believe he would somehow address the problems he promises to address, but plenty to the contrary.

From their perspective, liberals are right to worry President Obama may not realize their liberal dreams in a second term, for our president is a moderate man, which is why he's attracting the endorsements and votes of many Republicans and independents. President Obama is even conservative in many ways: from his sexual conservatism to his disciplined diet and workout routines to conserve his health, and from seeking to protect and conserve our planet to seeking to balance the books and reduce our national debt.

We can make changes to our Medicare and Social Security programs that will not weaken or worsen them but strengthen and better them. Many Republicans have even voiced support for these changes. Those are the changes we should make first. Means-testing should be introduced into the programs, as well as removing the tax ceilings or caps of the programs. Those two changes would reap a lot of new money for Social Security and Medicare, for it would mean that all income is subject to the Social Security and Medicare taxes, not just some up to an artificial cutting-off point. It would also mean the obscenely rich (like Romney) would no longer receive Social Security or Medicare benefits until their earned income (including capital gains earnings, et cetera) qualifies them for benefits designed as a social safety net to prevent our citizens from falling into dire and deadly straits in their old age.

Human beings are by nature more motivated to start something new, other than to support something existing. That’s why it’s important to mobilize Obama supporters to go to vote! “Go tell it on a mountain!”

If he is reelected, he will continue to bankrupt the federal government and paralyze the private sector with government regulations as during his first term. This is what the left wants. Mr. Obama is one of them, and always has been.

President Obama has already paid down more deficit than Bush/Cheney did in eight years. President Obama has also cut more unnecessary and onerous regulations than any president in modern history, according to one comparative presidential study I read. He has also created fewer regulations than the two administrations preceding him, one Democratic and one Republican. President Obama is clearly not the man you rant against.

Zaold: We are in a fine mess, to a great extent due to President Obama's proven record of mismanaging federal government economic policy. With Gov. Romney, unlike Obama, we will have someone who understands the private sector, and appreciates that pro-private sector government policies can strongly motivate its investment, output, and employment. The regulatory environment would be much freer than now, and not involve the constant uncertainty of new Obamacares, Dodd-Franks, or other crippling intrusions being forced into the nation's productive life. We would not be wasting billions on crony projects, such as California's public sector union-favoring high speed rail project, which will likely never be profitable. The broadest impulse would be to spend less, not more, as with Mr. Obama. I am sure there would be deals offered to Democrats to reform the main entitlement projects, which they wouldn't like, but at least there would be sincere efforts. Under Obama, given his record, all that can be expected is that he will be like before when it comes to arighting the federal government's fiscal accounts, i.e., he will be just like a potted plant in the corner of a room. We need someone who has a long record of being an active and successful manager in both private business and the government. Obama is simply a intellectually lazy, passive, line of least resistance leftist who will continue to make things worse.